“…Oh no.”
Suddenly, Lin Fuqing blinked his eyes while looking at the sky.
He stood up quickly. “Not good! You just broke through. I’m afraid it’ll attract yin monsters.”
Fang Zhiyuan already understood before Lin Fuqing had finished speaking.
He stood up with his sword in hand and a murderous look flashed across his eyes. “The outer disciple won’t be able to stop those dirty things. The sect is going to be in trouble. Stay here and wait for me to come back.”
“Let’s go together.” Lin Fuqing held him with his left hand, raised his right hand, and an exquisite double-edged sword appeared out of thin air in his palm. “In terms of current cultivation, I’m no worse than you.”
The long sword was snow-white and gleaming, full of brilliance. It was the Tunan sword he’d carried when he was young. The sword was nineteen inches long and had nine sections, and it was created out of eighty-eight kinds of gold, stone, jade, and bones. It was a genuine top-grade immortal weapon.
“……” Fang Zhiyuan stared at the sword. In his previous life, the Tunan Sword was destroyed in that catastrophe. Since then, Lin Fuqing fell into the devil’s way, and there was no longer the Da Shixiong of Xuyun Sect dressed in white and holding a snow sword.
He silently swallowed his objection: “…You must be careful.”
Lin Fuqing nodded, holding the Tunan Sword in his backhand. With a tap of his foot, his robes fluttered, and he instantly turned into a white shadow that swept across the ten-foot-long lotus pond.
Now that he was reborn…
He must see his Xuyun with his own eyes.
…….
The four peaks of Xuyun were located on Taiqing Island, with the main peak in the middle and the remaining three peaks located in the north, southeast and southwest. All of them were picturesque mountains. The main peak was never opened to anyone. This time, the sect’s test was held at the foot of Tinghe Peak in the north.
The group of children gathered here were no more than thirteen or fourteen years old and had just embarked on the path of spiritual practice.
Although they were neatly dressed in the plainclothes of the common people, wearing cloud-patterned belts and holding wooden swords, the fear on their young faces showed that they were far from being qualified disciples of an immortal sect.
“Yin monsters…”
“The yin monsters are here again!!”
Above their heads, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was colliding restlessly, and transparent array symbols emerged from the void, trembling in panic like frightened creatures.
That was the Xuyun Sect’s protective formation, the Heaven and Earth Gathering Array.
The appearance of runes was a sign of foreign objects intruding!
“Hehehe—”
“Hehehe—”
In the air, groups of strange black shadows screamed sharply and fell one after another under the pressure of the formation.
They were filled with a cold and gloomy aura and fell to the ground like black mud. Then, they stood up staggeringly like drunkards, revealing a pair of fierce eyes flashing red, which they cast at the young disciples nearby.
The yin monsters were vicious creatures formed from the yin qi that roamed between heaven and earth. Although they appeared to have eyes and a mouth, and black, thin and sticky limbs, they were generally recognized in the cultivation world to be without life and were just dirty things made of yin qi.
Generally speaking, the appearance of qin monsters were extremely difficult to predict. They were often attracted by spiritual energy to attack cultivators, and sometimes they also attacked mortals. They were one of the first choices for cultivators who wanted to “kill demons and exorcise evil spirits.”
Unfortunately, there were no powerful cultivators here, only dozens of outer disciple children of the Xuyun Sect.
Even though the strength of this group of yin monsters had been weakened by 80% to 90% under the power of the sect’s formation, it was still difficult for these boys and girls in the Qi Refining Stage to deal with them.
“Don’t panic, don’t panic!”
Among this group of outer disciples, whose faces had turned pale with fear, the voice of a young boy sounded particularly clear at this moment.
Shen Xiaojiang gripped his wooden sword and stood in front of the crowd, shouting, “Don’t panic! Form a formation nearby, six people together to defend and retreat, don’t disperse…I have sent out a message paper goose, and soon there will be shixiongs and shijies in the foundation building stage coming over!”
Several other children also stepped forward. Although their wooden swords were shaking with fear, they kept saying, “There are still children in the sect. We can’t let the yin monsters rush in! Yes, we will stop them!”
It became clear that this group of very young children, though faced with as many as thirty to forty yin monsters, were still frightened but no longer panicking.
Several of them stood back to back. Some began to recite spells, while others moved their swords to gather scarce little spiritual energy and pointed it at the hideous yin monsters.
However, at this moment, a clear sword sound suddenly rang out.
The snow-white sword broke through the air, quickly swept past the trees and rocks of Tinghe Peak, passed by the group of outer disciples, drew an arc that was difficult to see with the naked eye, and slashed straight towards the group of qi monsters!
Instantly, a sword light burst out in all directions, as if the moonlight was pouring down on the river. A dozen yin monsters that were rushing towards the outer sect disciples were all killed at once and turned into a string of yin qi that dissipated between heaven and earth.
Shen Xiaojiang looked back. Then his eyes immediately lit up, and he exclaimed in surprise, “Da Shixiong! Second Shixiong!”
Not far away, Lin Fuqing raised his hand and Tunan returned to his palm.
Next to him, the young man in black wrapped his arms around his long sword, staring at him as if he were facing a formidable enemy, and only felt a little relieved when he saw Tunan returned safely to his master’s hands.
The young outer sect disciples instantly went into a frenzy of excitement.
“It’s Lin Da Shixiong!!”
“Then, is that Immortal Lord in white is Lin Da Shixiong?”
“It’s da shixiong. I met him a few years ago. There’s no doubt about it!”
“Oh my god, Lin Da Shixiong is so handsome…”
…As for Fang Zhiyuan, this second shixiong who came with Lin Fuqing, it was as if he didn’t exist.
Fang Zhiyuan wasn’t bothered. He pushed Lin Fuqing back and walked past the young disciples toward the front.
Lin Fuqing’s sword strike just now was mainly to protect people. Tunan flew around and killed the yin monsters that were trying to attack the outer disciples. The remaining dozens of monsters were not attracted by the young disciples with weak spiritual power and were instead crawling towards the inside of the mountain.
But strangely enough, as soon as Fang Zhiyuan appeared, those yin monsters running around suddenly stopped moving.
Pairs of scarlet eyes turned towards him all at once, which was quite a chilling site to behold.
“Hisss…..”
“Hehehe—!!”
The yin monsters all let out a sharp roar.
These yin monsters, formed by the yin qi of heaven and earth, were like a pack of large, black dogs that had smelled blood. They all turned their heads and frantically pounced towards Fang Zhiyuan!
Lin Fuqing watched calmly from behind, and couldn’t help but feel the urge to sigh and express emotion.
Sure enough, after this rebirth, there were old things worth remembering everywhere.
How long had it been since he saw Zhiyuan being surrounded and chased by yin monsters?
Fang Zhiyuan, this person had a bad temper and a bad fate.
The Grand Elder of Ziwei Pavilion once personally used the Ziwei Star Chart to predict his fate, and this was also the reason why the Vermillion Qilin Fang family of Liuhua Continent also removed his name from their family tree.
Fang Zhiyuan was a calamitous star that had come to the world.
There are were specific manifestations:
First, he was extremely talented.
Second, he would attract yin monsters.
And not only would he attract a large amount of yin monsters, but these yin monsters would become frenzied.
After all, how could there be a sect’s protective formation that had the effect of preventing its disciples from flying?
Of course, it was because the second shixiong of their family often attract too many yin monsters. Even if he did nothing, at least one or two would fly in at any time. And once his spiritual energy leaked out after breaking through a realm, a dozen or more would fly in…
Everyone knew that yin monsters flew in the air at an extremely fast speed. Therefore, if there was no protective formation, how would they be able to withstand it?
Several yin monsters opened their bloody maws and pounced towards him, but Fang Zhiyuan didn’t even raise an eyebrow.
In his previous life, when he broke through to Golden Core, he had fought with this group of yin monsters for more than half an hour outside the sect formation. But he was different now. Before his death, Fang Zhiyuan had already entered the realm of Tribulation Crossing. If he had cultivated for another hundred years, he would have directly ascended to become the legendary True Immortal.
On the road of spiritual practice, there was a world of difference between every realm crossed, not to mention from Golden Core to Tribulation Crossing.
In the eyes of the reborn Immortal Sovereign Fang, the seemingly fierce attacks of these yin monsters were full of loopholes, and it would only take a few strikes to wipe them out.
But when he had just unsheathed half of the pitch-black sword in his hand, the sound of a guqin came floating in the wind, seemingly far away and near. It was like water flowing over rocks, deep and clear, making those who heard it feel moved.
When the floating sound of strings reached their ears, the outer disciple children of Xuyun Sect could not help but reveal intoxicated expressions. Meanwhile the Yin monsters suddenly rolled over in pain, emitting piercing screams. Waves of yin qi sizzled out of their bodies, and it seemed as if they were diminishing.
Fang Zhiyuan’s hand paused on the hilt of his sword. With raised eyebrows, he turned his head and looked at Lin Fuqing, immediately understanding how he was feeling.
This familiar but long-lost sound…
There was no mistake; it was an old friend coming.
The breeze blew gently, rustling the leaves in the forest. A young man in a blue robe was sitting on a towering rock with a guqin in his arm.
Along with the heavenly sound of the guqin, the young man’s voice, as gentle and pleasant as jade, also came from afar:
“Congratulations, Second Shixiong, for breaking through. These are just a small group of yin monsters. I dare not trouble second shixiong for help.”
The corner of Fang Zhiyuan’s mouth curled up. “You came.”
The blue-robed musician seemed to smile, and then he spoke in a gentle, polite, and sincere manner, “I came, of course, I came. This is Mingsi’s peak, after all. Please give Mingsi some face, show some mercy, and don’t blow up my cave.”
Fang Zhiyuan: “……”
The qi monsters gradually transformed into lumps of sinister slime and disappeared under the sunlight. When the last one was finally destroyed, the song ended.
The blue-clothed musician gently stroked the seven-stringed guqin in his hand. Light flowed on the guqin, and its shape disappeared in an instant. It turned out to be an immortal instrument.
The guqin player left the rock. After gracefully landing, he gently bowed in salute to Lin Fuqing and Fang Zhiyuan. “Mingsi greets da shixiong and second shixiong.”
After he finished his greeting, he raised his head, revealing a gentle and bookish look with soft brows and eyes.
…It was said that there were three thousand great ways, but the paths that immortals often take were only a handful. Some people cultivate martial arts in the midst of life and death, some read thousands of books to seek the truth, and some people sense the heaven and earth and become immortals in one day.
Xun Mingsi, the third true disciple of Xuyun Sect, was well-read and proficient in the six arts, especially music. He possessed the immortal instrument Que Ting and was an extremely rare person who entered the Tao through music.
Seeing that the crisis had been resolved, the group of children huddled in the back and began to chatter in low voices:
“It turns out that even third shixiong is afraid of second shixiong’s sword…”
“Pfft, didn’t they say that second shixiong would blow up a mountain every time he practiced swordplay?”
“That’s not possible. How can one really blow up the mountain?”
Shen Xiaojiang felt his stomach begin to ache again when he heard this. He made a crying face and said, “It’s true… It’s true that the mountaintop will be blown up!”
“…….”
Fang Zhiyuan put away his sword with a stern face and walked back to Lin Fuqing, cursing, “These bunch of little brats.”
Lin Fuqing gathered his sleeves and smiled. He knew Fang Zhiyuan would just hump twice. After all, Immortal Sovereign Fang was already over a hundred years old, so of course he wouldn’t bother with “these bunch of little brats.”
His gaze returned to the group of outer disciples. The bright sunlight shone on the young faces, and he could vaguely hear a few excited shouts.
“Did da shixiong look at me?!”
“No, he’s looking at me!!”
Innocent and cheerful, full of the vitality and enthusiasm of youth.
This old place still had the same scenery as before, and the old people still looked the same as before.
It turned out that he really came back.
Lin Fuqing’s slightly sighing gaze finally rested on a young boy.
It was the disciple who had just climbed up the main peak on an iron chain. He had only learned the basics of the light-body technique, but his courage was commendable. Although he looked a little honest and stupid, he was actually very reliable at the critical moment.
Lin Fuqing recalled his name. It seemed to be Shen Xiaojiang…
Hmmm?
Shen Xiaojiang, could it be that——
Lin Fuqing’s heart moved in surprise.
Shen Xiaojiang, was this the kid that, decades later, was discovered to have an excellent spiritual root that was rare in a thousand years?
This was… like he had picked up a rough jade.
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The author has something to say:
Xuyun Sect was not an immortal sect in the normal sense, and the fact that everyone loves the eldest senior brother was not an imposed attribute of being a heartthrob.
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Translator Notes:
Da Shixiong = big senior brother, eldest senior brother
Shixiong = senior brother, senior martial brother
Tunan = flying south, marching south. It is also used to describe people with lofty ambitions.
Wonder what happened in the calamity to make da shixiong fall into devil’s way….
It’s actually a little sad and a bit shocking…but also super understandable.